WASHINGTON (AP) Dec. 3 — Gov. Kathleen Blanco released 100,000 pages of memos, handwritten notes, e-mails, phone logs and other documents requested by congressional committees that are now investigating what happened behind the scenes in the frantic days surrounding the deadly Aug. 29 storm.
Among those documents are the back-and-forth communications between Blanco’s office and the White House, starting with a letter Blanco sent President Bush a day before the hurricane hit.
“I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary,” Blanco wrote.
Three days after the storm, Blanco wrote Bush asking that the 256th Louisiana National Guard Brigade be sent home from Iraq to help. The governor also asked for more generators, medicine, health care workers and mortuaries.
Five days later, Bush assistant Maggie Grant e-mailed Blanco aide Paine Gowen to say that the White House did not receive the letter.
“We found it on the governor’s Web site but we need ‘an original,’ for our staff secretary to formally process the requests she is making,” Grant wrote. “We are on the job but appreciate your help with a technical request. Tnx!”
«« click on pic for NOLA story
The stack of documents also includes a timeline put together by Blanco’s staff detailing the state response; notes expressing frustration about missing items such as a communications center for police and rescuers promised by the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and police reports, including logs of calls from people trapped amid the floodwater. Other documents show how Blanco’s aids were inundated with requests from celebrities and dignitaries wanting to visit the city.
ATLANTA — Yearning for information on the availability of housing and utilities three months after Hurricane Katrina submerged New Orleans, more than 1,000 homesick residents crowded an Atlanta auditorium to share their frustrations and fatigue with Mayor Ray Nagin.
Morehouse College was the latest stop on Nagin’s town hall meeting tour, a session that was part pep rally, part call to action and part group therapy. Atlanta officials said about 45,000 families sought refuge in their city.
“What we do together as we become one voice today, Washington will have to listen; those who are in authority will have to listen, because these are too many folk to mess with,” Bishop Paul Morton of Greater St. Stephen Full Gospel Baptist Church said as the crowd erupted into cheers.
Homes with blue tarps, debris and repair work in progress
in a controversial Lakeside Mall Christmas display.
Nagin sought to allay fears by giving a status report on the condition of the city. He told residents that Entergy New Orleans has committed to restoring power to all of eastern New Orleans by January, and that 1,100 businesses have reopened, along with access to hospitals, public buses and Louis Armstrong International Airport.
He acknowledged that housing remains a problem, with 12,000 people on a waiting list for trailers from the FEMA and the location of trailers in public parks sparking protests by residents and some City Council members. There’s also the issue of skyrocketing rent for the limited properties in the city.
The Life and Death of New Orleans Rap ◊ by blksista
Sun Dec 4th, 2005 at 10:51:59 AM PST
AMERICAN SHAME: The Edgar Hollingsworth Story :: May he R.I.P. ◊ by Oui
Mon Sep 26th, 2005 at 11:16:15 PM PST
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
Five days later, Bush assistant Maggie Grant e-mailed Blanco aide Paine Gowen to say that the White House did not receive the letter.
“We found it on the governor’s Web site but we need ‘an original,’ for our staff secretary to formally process the requests she is making,” Grant wrote. “We are on the job but appreciate your help with a technical request. Tnx!”
That little “Tnx!” So cute. So perky. People in LA are dying while WH staff acts they’re responding to an invitation to a cotillion.
Reading this, all I could hear was the “Gold Digger” re-mix (I actually heard the re-mix before I heard the original song by Kanye West):
And this:
Five days later. Jesus.
“George Bush don’t like black people.”
could have been tracked by the White House on the internet, Blanco’s requests could have been tracked on CNN.
This response is from people in a sealed bubble who ‘create their own reality.’
Same old bs – we’re working on it, but we need something from you. I get this from my ‘health insurance provider’ every time I have a claim.
It’s becoming so clear why the people of New Orleans have been divided and scattered across the country. Another ‘fuck you’ from george – organize this!
When they have these congressional hearings about the lack of response to Katrina I want every minute to be televised so that they “Kool Aid drinkers” can see what an idiot they stand behind. That response from the WH aid is pathetic. People were dying by the minute and they are worried about some technicality, they needed a hard copy? Print the effing web page fro Jeebus sakes. What a bunch of twits!
They had to have their paperwork in order before they could respond to a friggin’ emergency! I can’t wait to see how the WH spins 100,000 pages of evidence of their blithe disregard for human life.
The repubs are looking to barricade themselves in the paper as well. Governance is just a foggy word to them. I couldn’t believe that so few repubs are able to muster any kind of conscience about their jobs. We need to clear out the debris from capitol hill quick!
These people don’t believe in government. So when it hits the fan, they are shown as the incompetent yet greedy-for-federal-dollars cretins that they really are.
Other countries would have been at the drawing board, devised plans to keep the city safer in the event of another Cat 5, and worked out an economic development plan giving all who live there a stake and a role in it.
But when all you know or care to do is an economic smash and grab, then this makes no sense. Better to dole out money to your favorite cronies and claim victory.
Like you someone said upthread, I really do hate these people, too. They are psychopaths. You just don’t do this to other human beings, you just don’t.
One other thing: have you though about linking up with blksista to collaborate on a special section that is all about Katrina? She writes great diaries on Katrina. Perhaps Booman can carve out an area for it? What do you think? Or am I suggesting one more thing for your to-do list? :<)
Oh my!
I would go for that:
…and on and on.
I just think it’s needed because our gnat-sized attention spans need a focal point. And because what you & Oui write is so damned good.
I am still so angry and have never felt so powerless to change things in my life. This is a major American city and truly stupid people are actually asking why their tax dollars should go to rebuilding it. Truly stupid people are just sucking up dollars better than a Hoover vacuum.
Civilized countries do not do this!
Governor Blanco is covered. Everything she did was right and according to plan — both state and federal. If she had known in advance that the WH would promise everything along the way, and deliver NOTHING, she may have tried to go it alone. Fact is, she was waiting for stuff PROMISED and following procedure. I really sympathize so much with her position. It will be hard for Republicans to spin 100,000 pages of FACTS, but I’m confident they’ll find a way. And those stupid Americans who have their heads so far up their own butts that they can’t turn around will buy it all.
Oui, I have lots of trouble keeping up with you, DEAR!!!! You are so informed….How do you do it?????
Love each thing you write….hugs..
.
CNNi has improved lately with social impact documentaries on Human Rights in the Middle-East Muslim countries, Africa on abuse of women and HIV-AIDS, Eastern Europe and women trafficking issues. Lots of work remains to be done.
Decades ago the U.S. was seen as a beacon of Justice in a wicked world, where one could turn to and get his/her spirit lifted. Nowadays, the White House declares they don’t torture, yet the whole world sees the abuse daily of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The stupid people making up of today’s foreign policy are blinded by $$$ signs in their eyes and believe economic prosperity is in line with American moral value.
I’m disappointed by many Democrats in Congress today, we miss men and women of courage.
Yahoo top news is also useful to search breaking news stories. But my favorite is the radio through Internet :: BBC World – Bill Clinton on LIVE!
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
the folowing e-mail from Ms Grant: